Advantages

Disadvantages

Bake one yourself or do without!

Tesco Finest. Raspberry & Strawberry Torte************************************More of an Economic "Tort" than an Economical Torte!*******************************************(For the benefit of hubby who doesn't know his tort from his torte, sorry darling but you can't put clotted cream on a tort! As the basic gist is that a 'Tort' is a wrongdoing in common law as opposed to criminal law. Economic Tort - is Fraud)

This dessert definitely lives up to my title as it certainly tastes nothing like the mouthwatering (yet fraudulent) description on the box.It was sold to us as "A light vanilla flavoured sponge, topped with a raspberry sauce & creamy strawberry mousse, finished with a raspberry glaze & whole Heritage raspberries". Yummmm.....

Why We Bought It****************We'd been invited to a BBQ early on in the summer, and were asked to take a dessert. Now normally I would have baked a large gateaux or a lemon meringue pie or something similar, however I didn't even get home from work until two hours before we due there and I still had to unpack & get ready. So we cheated! Hubby & I nipped up to the Tesco store. We scanned the various desserts on display and opted for the Tesco Finest* range. They had an offer on which allowed a £1 discount if you bought two desserts from the range. We chose a "Tarte Au Citron" (covered in a separate review) and a "Raspberry & Strawberry Torte" as they're the sorts of desserts I make at home. They were frozen puds so we dived off home to defrost them, whilst I slapped on my polyfiller & paint to get semi-presentable.

I'm really glad that I fessed up to our friends that I'd only just got home & so we'd bought this pud, and I didn't try to pass this off as homemade .... Oh now come on ladies, don't pretend you've never been tempted to slap a bit of cream & garnish on a bought dish & say you've been chained to the kitchen all day! ;-) So what do you get for your money? .... Other than hopefully a refund & an apology! ;-)

"A light vanilla flavoured sponge" ...... This base layer was about 7mm deep, had a general cakey texture & colour but the resemblance ends there! It didn't have any vanilla flavour that was at all discernable."topped with a raspberry sauce" ..... JAM !!! And a really cheap, synthetic tasting, overly sweet one at that!

"creamy strawberry mousse" ..... Sorry I must have missed this bit, as all I found in my slice was a gelantinous slab of stuff that made Angel Delight taste like Cordon Bleu cuisine. It wasn't light & creamy as a mousse should be, and certainly didn't taste of strawberries."finished with a raspberry glaze" ...... More jam! Only this was watered down & set like jelly.

The whole thing was then topped off with "whole Heritage raspberries" ..... ermmmm ... So that will be the THREE (3) raspberries laid out laughingly in a straight line on the top! Incidentally Mr Tesco "whole" means full, complete ones .... Can we please nip back for the rest of ours? We just got 3 broken chunks. It looked pathetic & tasted terrible. If this is Tesco's "Finest", then I dread to think what their Basics puds taste like.Next time I'll make sure I get home early enough to bake, or we'll stay in with a DVD and skip the BBQ!

So as with all the Zurich taste tests, here's our verdict ...........

Product Verdict From The Zurich Household***********************************Daughter #1 is known as "Can't Cook" - Bless her, no matter how hard she tries she can't boil water (even using a pre-filled automatic electric kettle!).

She gave this dessert 1/5 - she likes jam, so didn't mind the taste too much.

Daughter #2 is known as "Won't Cook" - It's too much like hard work & far easier to wait for someone else to do it - I think she reckons that Fairies live in the house & magic-up meals from a sprinkle of Pixie-dust!!Unrated - didn't eat it as she was stuffed from eating king prawn kebabs & burgers. She really didn't like the look of it.

Hubby is known as "Too Busy to Cook" - (PS. For 'Busy' read 'Idle' !) If it's not out of a jar, a microwave carton or a meal I've freshly-frozen for him then forget it, it's beyond him!

He gave this 2/5 - Nothing like wee-wifey cooks (thank goodness!!) but it was fine for his notoriously sweet tooth, & once covered in cream it was ok.

Me - I'm known as "Never Bl**dy There To Cook" - I adore cooking & baking from scratch with all fresh ingredients when I'm at home. I cook everything in huge batches & freeze fresh home-cooked food, (organised & labelled) in individual portions in two large chest freezers, so they can all eat healthy food when I'm away!

I gave this 0/5. Tasted nothing like the description. Poor quality. Not even attractive to look at.

Summary********Don't bother.

Cost****£3 for one, or £5 for any two in the range

Merchandising/ Packaging*********************Frozen food (defrost for 2.5-3hrs at room temp or 5.5-6hrs in fridge) We found it took just over 3 hours to defrost at room temperature, which was ok by the time everyone finished BBQ & drifted over to dessert table. By the way, you can't refreeze it once defrosted - not that you'd want to save any of this!

It's set in a thin white plastic container & packaged in a cardboard box. It was easy to remove from packaging when frozen & so it could be arranged on a plate.

Manufacturer/Brand*****************Tesco "Finest" range produced in the UK for Tesco.

Size/weight of Pack****************500g. Pack suggested it serves six (6)

******************************************* ******************************************I know that some readers get antsi over reviews containing tech data & others get antsi if it's omitted, so I've put it at the end and you can make your own choice then.THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS ONLY FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO READ IT !****************************************** *******************************************

Storage*******Store in freezer till best before date, or fridge for 3 days.

Many thanks. Kate xxx

Acknowledgements & Other Information Sources************************************** *******************Some of the information/statistics in this review are courtesy of the product packet. This review may appear on either of my Dooyoo or Ciao accounts under my name "Zurich11"